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You can ‘study’ Kanye, Jay Z at Mizzou

COLLEGE SUBJECTS: Kanye West, left, and Jay-Z accept the award for best group for "Watch The Throne" at the BET Awards on Sunday, July 1, 2012, in Los Angeles. Photo: Associated Press/Matt Sayles/Invision

The relationship between rappers Jay Z and Kanye West is to be examined by students at the University of Missouri as part of a new college course.

Professors in the English department will give their pupils the opportunity to study the hip-hop icons, who teamed up to record hit album “Watch The Throne.”

Students will delve into Kaye and Jay Z’s careers in a bid to uncover how they changed “the history of hip-hop music”.

Instructor Andrew Hoberek says, “I really do think that these guys are warming up to the level of major poets, and not many people think of it in those terms because it’s not just on a page, but it’s video art, too. So, we looked at how those complicated the questions, and how do books about poetry help us to understand rap with Jay and Kanye at the forefront.”

The Jay Z and Kanye West class will be offered in the autumn. Course materials will include Jay Z’s book “Decoded.”

This is not the first time Jay Z has been the focus of a college course – in 2011, Georgetown University offered a class about his art.